1. Field of the Invention
The invention relates to a method of configuring a printer, wherein a set of printing parameters is stored in a control unit of the printer. The invention further relates to a printer suitable for executing this method and to an ink cartridge for use with an ink jet printer of this type.
2. Discussion of Background Art
A printer typically has at least one functional component, e.g. a nozzle head or an ink cartridge in case of an ink jet printer, an LED array, a photoconductor or a toner cartridge in case of a laser printer, which influences the settings of printing parameters. Thus, when such a functional component is replaced, it may be necessary to reconfigure the printer, i.e. to change the parameter settings, in order to assure a proper operation of the printer and/or to achieve the best possible image quality. One example of printing parameters which need to be reconfigured upon insertion of a new print head into the printer are the voltages with which the individual nozzles of an ink jet nozzle head or the individual LEDs of a laser printer are to be energized. Another example is the compensation of positional errors of the individual nozzles or LEDs. In a scanning-type ink jet printer or laser printer, the nozzles and LEDs, respectively, are typically arranged in a linear array which extends orthogonal to the main scanning direction. Due to manufacturing tolerances, the positions of the nozzles or LEDs in the main scanning direction may slightly deviate from one another. Such position errors can be compensated by providing suitable time offsets in the timings at which the nozzles or LEDs are fired during the scan motion of the print head. The nozzles of print heads manufactured in one same production series will normally have the same position errors, so that the corresponding time offsets will be the same for all print heads belonging to this series. However, when a print head from another production series is used, it may be necessary to reconfigure the printer in order to provide that corrected time offsets. Other parameters may, for example, be related to the transportation speed of the recording paper, compensation of changes in the slip and/or thickness of the recording paper, colour correction routines and the like.
Some printing parameters such as voltages, operating temperatures and the like may also depend on the age of the ink or toner being used.
For more convenient configuring or re-configuring of a printer having an interchangeable print head, it has been known for long that the printing parameters pertinent for a specific print head may be encoded or stored in a memory element that is provided on the print head. When the print head is mounted in a printer, the information stored in the memory element is automatically read by the control unit of the printer, and thus, the new printing parameters are stored. Methods of this type are disclosed for example in “Xerox Disclosure Journal” Vol. 8, No. 6, 1983, page 503; U.S. Pat. No. 4,872,027 and U.S. Pat. No. 5,049,898. These known methods all have the drawback that, once the printing parameters have been stored in the memory element, it is no longer possible or very cumbersome to adapt the configuration of the printer, when the operating conditions have changed.